Considering a job change, The Little Prince movie, Firefly, xxxHolic, etc.

I am about fed up with my job. I have worked almost every day this week straight through, without any breaks, fighting hunger, thirst, tiredness, and the urge to um, relieve myself, and I have still had to stay late every single day I've worked, except today where while I had to stay later than I was scheduled, I was asked to do so by Tori, and it was not the result of not finishing my work on schedule. The only days this week that I have worked and taken a break were Monday and today. I almost could have taken a break yesterday, but when I got to the point where I considered taking a break, I was by myself and was going to be alone until 5:00 when I got off. Therefore, I couldn't leave.

I am uncertain as to the reason for this. I have three guesses, all of which place the blame on a different person (or persons). One reason could be that I am not going fast enough with my work -- and I am capable of speeding myself up if needed -- and in that case the blame would fall on me. Another possible reason is that there are a lot of customers I end up having to help, delaying the completion of my work -- in which case one could say it was the customers' fault, or (to be more fair) the fault of an outside force. And a third reason could be that Tori is simply giving me too much work for a 5-hour shift -- in which case it's her fault.

The third one was debunked by Jennifer (our assistant store manager) today when I went to the office for an obligatory talk given to all of us bakery people about how we can run our department better. She said Tori wasn't giving us more work than we can complete. Although this may just be Jennifer's view of it. The others are valid. Sometimes I do have a lot of customers. And I can't help it if I'm alone and have to help them. On the other hand, I agree that sometimes I am kind of slow in my work. This is usually either cause of fatigue or because of being too thorough or distracted. For instance, it took me almost all of 5 1/2 hours to package, price, and tape two racks of La Brea bread, bag 8 boules of sourdough bread, and some strudel bites. Not too good.

Oh well. I suppose I could find another job, especially since I am thinking I would like to be part-time when I start at Cal State since there are a lot of classes to take -- 21 units just for core major stuff -- and I'd like to get my degree done as soon as possible. My dad said maybe I can get a job at Outreach (the place Andrew used to work at).

I rented a movie version of the book The Little Prince, which I bought and really liked when I read it, from iTunes. I watched it the other day. This version was a musical. I was really saddened by the end where the prince dies -- I didn't remember that from the book.

I also finally watched the first episode of the sci-fi show Firefly, which I had downloaded a while ago. It was pretty good. Long for a TV ep (1 1/2 hours) but good. I may watch more, but not for a bit. I was mad at the Captain for telling Simon Kaylee was dead when she wasn't. But overall I didn't get too emotionally into it.

I finally decided to start reading xxxHolic, a manga series which crosses over with Tsubasa: ReserVOIR Chronicle. I got volume 1 and read it. It was pretty good. Slightly scary too, but in the way that ghosts, etc., are scary.

Well not much else to say. It's late, and I got to get up early tomorrow for work. Spasiba e dasvidanya (Thank you and goodbye), as Ann from One Minute Russian would say.

Sample Hebrew monologue, in the style of Learn Hebrew Pod lesson 3-A

This is a practice for me to replicate for myself a version of the monologues given in Lesson 3-A of the podcast I'm listening to to learn Hebrew.

Here goes.

Shalom.
Shmi Misty.
Ani studentit.
Ani lomedet sifrut.
Ani ovedet ch·n·vt m·ch·v·lt.

Translation:

Hello.
My name is Misty.
I am a student.
I study literature.
I work in a grocery store.

The words "studentit," "lomedet," and "ovedet" indicate right away that I am female, as they contain suffixes (-it and -et) used when referring to a female.

The dots in the word "ch·n·vt m·ch·v·lt" supposedly would be for vowels that are left out, but I don't know what vowels they would be.

Here's another possibility:

Shalom.
Shmi Misty.
Ani studentit.
Ani lomedet m·n·vt.
Ani ovedet ch·n·vt m·ch·v·lt.

Translation: Hello. My name is Misty. I am a student. I am studying art. I work in a grocery store.

I tried to find more vocab to learn, but even on the darn Internet such things as vocab lists for languages are few and far between.

For fun, here's the same two conversations in French (which I know much better).

Bonjour.
Je m'appelle Misty.
Je suis une étudiante.
J'étudie la littérature.
Je travaille dans la boulangerie de un épicierie.

Bonjour.
Je m'appelle Misty.
Je suis une étudiante.
J'etudie l'imprimerie ce semestre.
Je travaille dans la boulangerie de un épicierie.

I changed this up a little cause I know more French than Hebrew.

Translation:

#1:

Hello.
My name is Misty.
I am a (female) student.
I study literature.
I work in the bakery of a grocery shop.

#2:

Hello.
My name is Misty.
I am a (female) student.
I am studying printing this semester.
I work in the bakery of a grocery shop.

Notice here: I put (female) before student because I used the word for "student" with its feminine ending. Also by "printing" I mean the printing trade.

That's all. I'm gonna find something for dinner and probably watch Howl's Moving Castle like I intended to do tonight. I've seen it already, but only in Japanese.

Etching, Russian & Hebrew by podcast, Vegas trip,The Supervisor is Watching You, Deathly Hallows as 2 films, etc.

Wow haven't written most of this month. Well there hasn't been much to report. I've gone to work and school and then come home and did stuff.

I am now riding the SPRINTER, a light-rail train, to work and school. In both cases, the SPRINTER is only part of my journey, and I have to catch buses before and after. It is a very nice train. It is quiet and smooth, and the seats are pretty comfortable. Plus, it's kind of cool because in the middle of the train there's an accordion-esque thing that allows one part of the train to move so the train can round curves without having to move the whole train. (Some of the San Diego buses have this thing too). Riding the SPRINTER is necessary for me to get to work now that the 320's been axed; it's not necessary to get to and from school using it (there's a bus I could take, I think, from school to the bus station I catch the bus home at) but it's fun anyways. The connection between the 319 (the bus that connects Mira Costa and the nearest SPRINTER station) and the SPRINTER though is very badly timed.

We are now doing etching in my printmaking class (though I'm a little behind and have to still run prints for my 2nd blockprint). I asked the teacher for permission to borrow an etching tool so I could work on my etching at home and catch up. So I did. But I had trouble printing it; the prints came out too light. The teacher said the lines needed to be thicker, so I borrowed an etching tool again with the intention of working on it last week during spring break. I must confess I put it off. The first part of the week, we were in Vegas Sunday and Monday, I was off Tuesday and Thursday, and I worked the rest of the week and was quite tired and stressed. I almost did it last night but ended up doing other things instead. But I finally worked on it tonight, as soon as I got home from work. It is better now.

The etching I am doing is of a page from one of my W.I.T.C.H. comic books that has a picture of Cornelia and Elyon. I was initially afraid it would be too big when the teacher was passing out squares of Plexiglass, but when I laid the Plexiglass on the picture, it fit just fine.

Here is the picture (resized to fit my blog post space):




Etching is at least easier than the blockprints, though when we move on to etching on metal plates it will supposedly be harder. Also, printing etchings is harder than printing blockprints.

I am learning 2 new languages thanks to the Radio Lingua Network's slew of podcasts on iTunes and my trusty iPod Nano: Russian and Hebrew. I have listened to two lessons of each, and am now listening to supplementary lessons from LearnHebrewPod.com (the site for the podcast I'm listening to to learn Hebrew). They are not as hard as I thought; I always figured Russian was pretty hard. I had issues though pronouncing the word for "hello" (Zdrastvuite) but I think I have figured it out.

Last week, we went to Vegas for my uncle's funeral. It was overall an ok trip but pretty boring. We did drive down the Strip on the first night though and saw all the famous hotels. The funeral service the next day was brief (due to Veteran Cemetery regulations) and after it we went and ate at the buffet at the hotel we had stayed at. It was a very good buffet, though I didn't eat much. I wasn't terribly hungry after my first helping (three fried wontons, some steamed rice, a breadstick, and some overly buttered penne, all of which I ate), so I just had dessert after that (a couple cookies, a small brownie-esque thing with M & M's, and a small bowl of ice cream).

This last week and then some has been stressful at work cause supervisors of various sorts have been in almost every day. Not to mention we just got through a holiday week (Easter; not to mention St. Patrick's Day was the same week). I've sampled once in about two weeks. The rest of the time I've been packaging to the point where if I were a less moral girl than I am, I would probably swear the next time I saw a dinner roll. Yesterday, I described myself as being in a "La Brea nightmare" cause I worked with La Brea all day (for FIVE HOURS). The supervisors' constant presence reminds me of the book 1984 (which I've heard of but never read) where it is said that "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." In our case, it's THE SUPERVISOR IS WATCHING YOU. This stress has been weighing most heavily on our manager Tori, and lots of stress on a woman in her first trimester -- that's right, she's PREGNANT -- is not good. I am once again concerned about her lifting things when she's not supposed to (as I was with Katie).

Well, the news finally became official -- after weeks of rumors and at least one leak -- that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be split into TWO films, un-creatively titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I agree with what I've been hearing that using subtitles in the title would be better. This has worked for lots of movies, most recently Pirates of the Caribbean (all three films of which have subtitles in their titles -- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) and National Treasure (the second movie is called National Treasure: Book of Secrets). The Star Wars prequels also succeeded at this (with the subtitles The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith respectively).

Possible subtitles? It probably depends on how they split the movies. I personally think that after they are captured by the Snatchers and dragged off to Malfoy Manor is a good cliffhanger ending, though after the Silver Doe appears would be logical too since that's about the halfway point of the book. It also is when Ron returns to the group after a long absence, an event which brings resolution and also echoes the end of the Chamber of Secrets movie (where everyone is in the Great Hall and Hermione, who's been Petrified, runs in alive and well and is greeted by Harry and Ron).

So hmm possible subtitles then. Maybe Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The Battle Begins and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: The Battle Ends. Ok maybe too cheesy. Or maybe Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Soul Searching and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Sole Enemy. The "soul searching" being the search for the Horcruxes; the "sole enemy" being Voldemort. Plus the pun on "soul" and "sole" would be interesting.

On PotterCast, they were saying if they really wanted to do the books justice, they could have split all the movies. That would've been interesting. Order of the Phoenix could've totally been split. I can imagine Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Rebellion Begins and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Power of Friends. Or something like that.

Anyway not much more to say I think. Good night.

Blockprints are hard, new podcasts, etc

Well today I was trying to finish my second blockprint. But I had to finish printing off my first blockprint, and ran into a couple snags: one of my papers which was in the water bin got snatched by some unknown person, and I remembered afterward to clean up my ink, and that ate up a bunch of time. I spent the first hour of class in the print lab running the prints and then cleaning the ink off the table using paint thinner and (via a classmate's recommendation) pages torn from a phone book.

I then worked on making the last few needed cuts in my key plate while listening to my iPod. Once I was ready to transfer the image to the other plates, I went and found the teacher and asked him how to do it. He told me, and I brought over to the print lab (where the ink rollers were) my plates, some butcher paper, a rubber thingie, and this flat thing for holding your plate flat so you can register the image for test prints and for getting the image on the initial plate. The process was supposed to be thus: you make a print of the key plate (i.e., the one that was cut). You then take that block out, put in a blank block, and rub the paper to make the image transfer from the paper to the block. Unfortunately, the lines on one block weren't too clear in some places, and one image didn't transfer well at all cause the tape holding down the paper loosened so the paper moved.

I told the teacher that my images didn't transfer well and he was saying something about cutting parts out and some other stuff my brain didn't quite process (must be that darn caffeine-free soda they had at College Hour). Anyway, we went back to the studio and he showed me with some colored pencils a way I could add colors to my otherwise black-and-white print. It involved cutting pieces out of the key plate - the cape, shoes, and the upper part of the outfit - after transferring the image to another plate, from which plate I would cut out everything BUT those parts I cut out of the key plate and then ink those in whatever colors I want. Then I would have a background plate, from which I also have to cut something out if I don't want the colors to blend. It's all so confusing. I'll have to come back to it with a clearer head.

I should mention what it is I'm doing a print of. Determined to do a person this time (after my previous print, a print of the weapons making up the Armor of God from my CYA story), I am doing a print of Yosi from the PowerMark comic series. I can't find a good picture of him, but if you go to powermarkcomics.com and click on "Goodies" and then click on the coloring page for Yosi, you will see the image I am doing a print of.

Speaking of blockprint #1, while it did not turn out perfect in either run (besides the sample one I did with my teacher's T.A., which of course looks better than my attempts), I am ok with it. Since I did a run with a light blue background and a run with a pink background, I am thinking of naming them "CYA Armor of God, Blue Period" and "CYA Armor of God, Rose Period," as a bit of a joke homage to Picasso, who is known for his "blue period" (where he painted a lot of paintings in blue hues) and his "rose period" (where he painted a lot of paintings in oranges and pinks). I suppose I am more satisfied with that print because since I actually drew the drawing from which it comes, I had more control over the look of it.

I am trying out new podcasts as a result of browsing iTunes yesterday in search of new things to listen to. I'm kinda low on money right now, and so podcasts are a good option to go for cause they're all free. During class today I listened to a NPR (National Public Radio) podcast on Books, where they talked during the first part about Hester Prynne as a character (which is what I wanted the episode for, actually, but the rest of it was good too), and to a BBC podcast called World Have Your Say, which explores news issues and lets people worldwide comment on them during the broadcast via phone, e-mail, text message, etc. This particular episode was on Russia and was done just prior to the recent elections there. It was quite interesting.

I better go soon so I am home in time for us to go out to dinner, since it's my brother's birthday. But I just have one more thing to say quickly.

My brother - Andrew - might have to move out soon.

Yeah you read right. You might be wondering why.

Well, it's a thing between my parents and my brother mostly, but they told me about it too, and while I don't plan on probably telling any actual person, I really wanted to work out my thoughts about it.

Basically, the issue is this: apparently my brother has been going out drinking and smoking marijuana with his friends. And our parents know about it, and they aren't happy (now granted, they themselves drink some alcohol now and then, but very moderately, and my mom occasionally smokes cigars, but not addictively). And they have told him to stop but he refuses. And so if he doesn't stop, he's going to have to move out by April 15.

If he does, I suppose it will be just as well, but still, he is my brother, and we have just in the last few years really started getting along. It will be weird if he leaves, especially if he moves out before me (since I'm the older one).

My first thought after hearing this had to do with my Aunt Jane (probably because my dad had just told me the confirmed date for my uncle's funeral earlier that day). She left my grandparents' house under similar circumstances - not drugs or anything - but basically moving out after having a fight with them. My mom also moved out at 17 because of issues at home. Is history repeating itself?

All of this too makes me wonder if I will ever move out. It doesn't look promising right now.

One last tidbit: My Mum did my taxes before I did the FAFSA, and it looks like I am going to get over $300 back as a tax refund. I have never gotten very much back from taxes, and always the refund came from the federal side (I always owed money to the state). So this is surprising.

I want to use the money for driving school, even though that would take up most if not all the money in one fell swoop. But I do want to get my license soon, even if I can't afford a car for a bit, just cause by this age, I am starting to feel really embarassed about not having a license.

Okay it's almost 5 so I'm gonna go. Bye.

Work crackdowns stretch my emotional control limits, among other things

Work the last few days has been a royal, stinking stress-fest. I know the wording of that is weird but I have no clue how else to say it. Usually, I am pretty good at maintaining my cool under stress and pressure, but when the stress level gets to a certain point, even something small can put me in a bad mood. On such days, I tend to get upset with really stupid things and take out my frustration on totally innocent people. Not only is this a very bad Christian example, but I feel awful afterwards for being such a pain in the...um, posterior (I cannot believe I actually considered putting the a-word there...bad girl). Also, when I get worked up, I totally destroy people's illusions that I am calm and can deal with anything that comes my way. I look weak and vulnerable, and sometimes I even end up in tears AT WORK --and, I'm sorry, that is just plain embarrassing as I see it. You don't cry at work. You can't. Especially if it's over something totally stupid. It's just not professional.

To anyone who might actually read this blog (I know I write very candidly and privately as if no one reads this, but I do know that more people than just me use Blogger and the Internet in general), you are probably thinking, "C'mon. You're only human." Yeah I do know I am only human. But I also want to look professional at work, and I want the managers to think well of me--but I don't think I do very well at that in situations like this.

Situations like this make me question my faith. If I'm supposedly growing as a Christian -- as I should have by now, after FOURTEEN YEARS as a believer -- why have I not learned to call on God to help me act the right way in situations like this? I know I do not do so consciously at work, except in some rare situations.

And why did I not turn to God for comfort on my way home? All I did on the bus ride home was first, sit and brood and sigh. Then, I turned on my iPod and listened to music, mainly Hilary Duff, and I felt like maybe my spirits were lifting as I sang along to "Someone's Watching Over Me" and "Jericho" while at the bus station waiting for the bus to school to buy my March bus pass. Then, I turned off the iPod and indulged in some Pokemon Pearl. My spirits lightened a bit when I won my second contest in a row. And the view of the slowly disappearing sunset over the horizon line of the view from where I catch the bus home from school was so pretty I just sat and stared at it. Then I indulged in more Pearl. After getting dinner at Arby's once I missed the 6:30 FAST, I turned on Mugglecast and listened to it.

The only time I remember thinking of God was when I was watching the sunset.

I have said it before, I am probably too hard on myself in regards to how I live my life -- spiritually and otherwise. I have this expectation of what I should be, and I get frustrated that I can't meet it. Subconsciously, or maybe consciously, I know that I'm just driving myself insane with this perfectionistic way of living. But I just can't stop. It's a pattern I have gotten myself into that I have no clue how to get out of. I'm not even sure if I asked God to help me get out of it if it would be possible, as blasphemous as that sounds.

I have difficulty trusting people -- it's gotten worse since Kyle, I think, but I think it was a problem even before then. Especially since my teenage years it has been difficult to trust God. The double whammy of my grandmother's death my freshman year of high school and the thing with Kyle my sophomore year really impacted me spiritually. Then junior year was tough academically speaking; I got a rather low score on my SAT due to being behind in math (due to a scheduling error my sophomore year), among other things. Then, in my senior year, another double whammy: my other grandmother died AND my best friend got pregnant out of wedlock.

College hasn't been much better; I've had rough spots with my grades, with my GPA dropping below 3.0 for the first time. Then Kyle had the nerve to butt into my life again, unannounced this time. I still had difficulties regarding career and school choices. Plus, I became disillusioned with the one Christian group on campus, just when I probably needed Christian friends most. I got laid off of a job I really liked, did finally find a new job (my current one) but dislike it greatly, and now because of my new job going to church has proven difficult (since I tend to work Sundays) and my experience of church has been reduced to going a few times with my parents to their new church and to listening to sermons from my church on my iPod.

As I was ranting I thought of a part of The Horse and His Boy when Shasta talks about his misfortunes. At one point, he says: "I do think that I must be the most unfortunate boy that ever lived in the whole world. Everything goes right for everyone except me." Then a Large Thing/Person (actually Aslan, but Shasta does not know this) approaches him, and bids Shasta to "Tell me your sorrows."

The following paragraph reads thus:

"Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat."

The response of Aslan to Shasta's tale of woe is interesting:

“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.

"I do not call you unfortunate." Interesting. "Unfortunate," in terms of word history, basically means "not prosperous or happy" (un- meaning "not" or some other negative; "fortunate" coming from a Latin word signifying prosperity and happiness).

I just thought also of how people sometimes quote schmaltzy Bible verses to comfort people in situations like mine. Ones like James 1:2 ("Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face various trials...") and Romans 8:28 ("All things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose"). That last one was actually on the list of the "Ten Most Misunderstood Verses" that I heard one of the pastors from my church preach on for a college group talk (which I got off iTunes as a podcast).

One verse that has been in my mind quite a bit lately is 1 Timothy 4:12: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers, in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity." I think I was thinking of it because I was working the CYA storyline around in my head, and I thought it might be a great theme verse for them. But I suppose it applies to me too, and not just cause I know a cool song of it (which is how I have it memorized - I have this old cassette with some kids' thing on it with songs that are Bible verses also). A commentary I just found says this about the verse: "Because Timothy was young, he was vulnerable to the errors of youth which bring the often justified criticism of those older. To address this, Paul called him to live a life so that was so godly that no one could despise his youth." This makes sense, for he calls him to be an example in several areas: what he says (speech), what he does (life), how he treats others (love), in faith (the commentary previously quoted says this is "in a sense of faithfulness"), and in being pure (purity).

I decided to do a bit of a word study of these words right now, using Studylight.org's Greek lexicon. I used the KJV for the word study so I could use Strong's; the verse as quoted above is from the NIV.

***

The word translated "speech" is the Greek word logos, which is usually said to mean "word" but can mean "a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea," what somebody else has said, discourse, a type of teaching, or the topic of a conversation when referring to speech. It can also refer to reasoning or one's account of something in response to a judgment on something. Since the KJV translates the word as "word" though, the meaning is probably meant to refer to the "speech" sense of the word.

The word used for "life" is the Greek word anastrophe, which means "manner of life, conduct, behaviour, deportment." In other words, how do you behave? Does the talk match the walk, as it were. Interestingly, this word comes from another word -- anastrepho -- which means "to turn upside down, overturn," to sojourn in a place for a time, or to "turn back." It is the metaphorical sense only that gives us the "manner of life" direction.

Not surprisingly, the Greek word used for "love" here is agape. In Ancient Greek, there are three words for love: eros, phileo, and agape. Eros is the term for romantic love -- hence our word "erotic." Phileo is brotherly love -- hence the town of Philadelphia, PA being the "City of Brotherly Love." But agape goes deeper than eros and phileo and is defined as unconditional love. It is the love God is said in the Bible to have for us, and since we are commanded to "love one another as Christ has loved you," agape is for us too. However, being imperfect human beings, it is very difficult for us to show agape love. Yet Paul includes it on this list, so it must be important.

The word used for "faith" is the Greek word pistis, which can mean "conviction of the truth of anything, belief" and also "fidelity, faithfulness." I said before that the commentary viewed this as a "faithfulness" context. This word comes from the Greek word peitho, which means "to persuade" or "to trust."

The word for "purity" is hagneia and means "purity, sinlessness of life." This is confusing cause none of us are sinless.

***

I feel better having vented this here.

In other news, I may leave for school earlier than usual tomorrow to do some print lab work before class so I can focus more of class on my second blockprint, which I think Mr. Richards wants done by Thursday. I hate to get up early on my day off. But maybe I can still get up at 8, leave at 9:30, and just go straight to the print lab when I get to school instead of hanging out in the library or whatever. Actually, that's not a bad idea.

Basically, what I have to do is take one of my good papers out of the water it's in and put it in my blotter to dry, take the two dry papers out of the blotter and run prints on them, clean my plates to prep for my blue-ink prints, cut more paper to run the blue-ink prints, and then soak those papers and put as many of those in the blotter as I can fit (which will probably only be one or two).

The paper soaking only takes like 5 minutes, and you can go off and do something else while they soak (like with dishes...^v^). I don't have to worry about the papers I put in the blotter; they need to dry at least overnight anyway. And running the prints is actually not as time-consuming as it sounds, even with a hand-crank press. You ink your plate (or plates), set the plate on your paper (with newsprint underneath and on top) and then lay the cloth over it that keeps the ink off the press itself, and then crank. If you have a multi-plate image (like me) then you leave the printed image on the paper and just change the plate and then crank the press again.

Ok I am happy again I think. Venting is always useful. And with a blog, you don't have to worry about offending the ventee cause the blog is not a person.

There's not really anything else to say. Good night.

Pokemon Pearl, printmaking moving along, might try out for PotterCast acting troupe, etc.

After listening to several eps of the Pokémon podcast WTPT, I got inspired to update my collection of Pokémon games, which up till now had consisted solely of copies of Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Silver, bought for $4.99 apiece, the GameCube game Pokémon Colosseum, and Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Puzzle League for the N64 (and also Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Snap in the past). Unfortunately, it turned out I could only afford initially to buy one of the three handheld games I don't have and want (Sapphire, Leaf Green, and Pearl). So I bought Pearl, one of the new Pokémon DS games. (I may buy the other two later, but probably used, to save money). I have played a little more than 10 hours into it in the last few days, using my recently-purchased Coral Pink Nintendo DS Lite (purchased to replace my broken red DS).

Anyway, Pearl is pretty cool. As one of the two first Pokémon RPG games for DS (Pokémon Diamond, Pearl's partner game, is the other), it does utilize the DS's features quite well. For instance, it uses the stylus well, but most stuff the stylus can do the buttons can do also, if you need to stow away the stylus for some reason.

Since the last handheld Pokémon game I'd played was Silver (^_^), I was in for a surprise with this game. The graphics are SOOO much better (as I suppose they should be), you can now compete in both contests and gyms (which I guess is not new -- it came along in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald), Team Rocket has been replaced with Team Galactic, and several other things.

Today I had a new experience. Since I was in Hearthome City, home of the Pokémon contests, I used some of the many berries I've acquired to make Poffin. The Poffin concept is new. I guess they're like buns. Anyway, you make Poffin from berries, as I said, and once you make it, you can feed it to your Pokémon to make them look better for contests. The process of making Poffin mostly involves a bunch of stirring. The thing that struck me about it though was that the Poffin bowl appeared on the touch screen, and you stirred it using the stylus. This is exactly the same way you stir potions during Potions lessons in the DS version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which I also own). Interesting similarity.

I have seen about 40 Pokémon but only actually caught a few. Let's see. I have a Budew, a Zubat (which I caught to get a Heal Ball), a Buneary, and an Abra (which I got in a trade) in my box. In my main party of Pokémon I'm fighting with, I have six Pokémon I have all given nicknames to. Here they are:

~ Prinplup (evolved from my starter, Piplup) - nicknamed "Prynne," after Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, a book I like
~Staravia (evolved from a Starly I caught) - nicknamed "Star."
~ Luxio (evolved from a Shinx I caught) - nicknamed "Shii" (short for "Shinx").
~ Machop (caught outside Jubilife City) - nicknamed "Mac."
~ Pachirisu (caught someplace) - nicknamed "Pachie."
~ Geodude (caught in the Ravaged Path, met by accident) - nicknamed "Gio."

As you can see, I am trying to balance out types as much as possible. I have a Water type (my starter), a normal/flying type (Star), two electric types (Shii and Pachie), a fighting type (Mac), and a rock type (Gio). Granted, I don't really need two Electric types, but both Pokémon were so cute I felt I really wanted them. Plus Shii has some non-type moves (Hidden Power and Bite) that come in useful. I could use a Fire-type, but judging from the Sinnoh Pokédex, the only fire-types in the game, besides the Fire-type starter (Chimchar) and its evolutions, appear to be Ponyta and its evolution Rapidash. Although the Pearl-exclusive Houndour family is part Fire-type so I suppose they count (their other type is Dark, which gives them lots of resistances).

And yes I did meet Gio by accident. I went into the Ravaged Path early in the game to see if it went anywhere, and it didn't at that time, so I started to leave and bumped into a Geodude on the way out.

Oh and I did a contest -- my first -- and I WON! I guess my practice paid off. I thought for sure I would lose cause I did so badly on the Dance Competition. I only did well on the Visual Competition because today I bought a player's guide for Diamond and Pearl, and it lists which accessories go with which themes. You go with the theme, you get more points. So the only one I truly won on my own merits was the Acting competition, which has you show off your Pokémon's attacks to three judges. If you can work each round well so that you have your own judge each time (i.e., you don't share him or her with another contestant), you do better cause you have more of the judge's attention. The way I went about this was that I chose a different judge for each of the first three rounds. When I had to repeat a judge for turn 4, I would go for the one the other contestants weren't likely to pick. This helped my score tremendously. Though I used a Poffin-improved Star in the practice sessions, I ended up using Prynne in the actual contest, since it has a variety of moves and I knew that would give me an edge in the Acting competition.

The Visual one just involves dressing your Pokémon with accessories, even if it ends up looking a little silly. The Acting is attacks, as I said. The Dance competition has you follow the steps of the lead dancer to a certain beat. My timing was off most of the time, as it was during a similar challenge in the "Hot Thief" episode of the DS game Totally Spies! 2: Undercover.

Ok moving on real quick.

~ Printmaking: I have things set up for printing out my first blockprint in the print shop. We have to have the second blockprint done this coming week too, so I am going to try to work almost exclusively on it on Tuesday, since I haven't even started it (though I have the image picked out - that was my main problem with the first one; this time it'll probably go faster). Maybe I'll even go and work in the print lab Monday after work, since I need to go to school to buy my March bus pass anyways. Or maybe not. I'll probably be tired.

~ PotterCast Acting Troupe: they announced this a long time ago (must have been September, cause I heard that podcast when I was heading home from the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit) but they are finally doing auditions. The auditions were due March 1st (tomorrow), but they've been extended through the 8th. I think I will audition reading as Hermione, my favorite character, even though the first story will be about the "next generation" (Harry's kids, Ron and Hermione's kids, etc), since the other option is to read a line the character you want to play says in the DH Epilogue, and I have no clue what kid I want to play. The only little girls in the Epilogue are Lily Luna Potter (Harry and Ginny's daughter), Victoire Weasley (the daughter of Bill and Fleur, born one year after the Battle of Hogwarts - hence the name Victoire, which means "victory" in French), and Rose Weasley (Ron and Hermione's daughter). Supposedly, Victoire is pretty old at this point, maybe out of school already.

Ha ha. Just was poking around the Harry Potter Lexicon, and it says that Ginny post-DH went on to play for the Holyhead Harpies (a Quidditch team known for being entirely female) and later retired and went on to be the head Quidditch reporter for the Daily Prophet. We always knew Ginny would go for Quidditch!

Ha ha. Angelina Johnson married George Weasley! She's the one who was always yelling at Harry in Order of the Phoenix for missing Quidditch cause of getting detention with Umbridge. Anyway yeah she married George and they have two kids, Fred and Roxanne. (Roxanne? Why Roxanne?).

Hermione - yay Hermione - started her career working to improve the conditions for house-elves and other "disenfranchised creatures" via the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and then went on to work for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and "put an end to pro-pureblood laws" (a very Muggle-born thing to do). Dang, isn't that just like Hermione? Further S.P.E.W. (the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare) and then go on to help Muggle-borns like herself. I love Hermione!

Ok I'm tired. Good night.

It's GENKI-UP!

"It's GENKI-UP!" as Usagi's mom from PGSM would say.

I am feeling better since last night. I actually made it through work today and stopped by Borders after work to pick up some manga I can't find elsewhere. I got Card Captor Sakura volume 4, Card Captor Sakura: Master of the Clow volumes 5 and 6 (which completes the Master of the Clow series in my collection), The Prince of Tennis volume 8, and No Need for Tenchi! volume 2. Oh and I got a cool bookmark made of wood that says "Wisdom begins in wonder. Socrates" on it and has a character for "wisdom" on it (I think it's a Chinese character). I wasn't going to get both volumes 5 and 6 of Master of the Clow, but since that series as a whole is a lot harder to find anywhere than the original Card Captor Sakura (which I've seen occasionally recently) I decided to go ahead and complete the series.

That's what I need to do for several of the manga series I have, get more volumes. I tried to make a list during my downtime while sampling (writing on pickup tissue, which is sort of like wax paper) but couldn't remember all the series I had. I have a complete list of the ones I have, though, which I made for my anime/manga website. So, here's my list of what series I have and how many volumes I have of each and, if applicable, what ones I need to complete the series (if it's a long series that I need a lot of volumes to complete, I just put the first number I need and then a plus sign):

****

CLAMP MANGAS

~ Chobits: complete
~ Magic Knight Rayearth: complete
~ Magic Knight Rayearth II: complete
~ Card Captor Sakura: have: volumes 1-4; need: volumes 5 & 6
~ Card Captor Sakura: Master of the Clow: complete
~ CLAMP School Detectives: complete
~ CLAMP School Defenders Duklyon: complete
~ Man of Many Faces: complete
~ Angelic Layer: have: volume 1; need: volumes 2-5
~ Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE: have: volumes 1-8; need: volumes 9+ (of, currently, 23!)

NON-CLAMP MANGAS:

~ The Prince of Tennis: have: volumes 1-8; need: volumes 9+ (of 40!)
~ R.O.D.: Read or Die: complete
~ R.O.D.: Read or Dream: complete
~ The Good Witch of the West: have: volumes 1 & 2; need: volumes 3 & 4
~ Tokyo Mew Mew: complete
~ Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode: complete
~ Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days: complete
~ Peach Girl: Sae's Story: complete
~ No Need for Tenchi!: have: volumes 1 & 2; need: volumes 3-10
~ Wedding Peach: have: volume 1; need: volumes 2-6
~ Pichi Pichi Pitch Mermaid Melody: have: volumes 1 & 2; need: volumes 3-7
~ Flame of Recca: have: volume 1; need: volumes 2+ (of 33!)
~ Pokémon: have: volumes 1-3 (Toshihiro Ono manga), volume 1 (Pokémon Adventures); need: volume 4 (Toshihiro Ono manga), volumes 2+ (Pokémon Adventures)

***

Apparently, as far as the Pokémon manga goes, while all the Toshihiro Ono manga was released in the U.S. (though I'd probably have to go on like Ebay to get the 4th and final volume at this point, it's so old), Viz stopped publishing Pokémon Adventures at volume 7 of 28, due to poor sales, and they're re-releasing it as these "Best of Pokémon Adventures" volumes I've been seeing, which come in 2 volumes, a Red version and a Yellow version.

The good news for Pokémon manga fans is that the other volumes of Pokémon Adventures through volume 26 are available in English through another source. Singapore publisher Chuang Yi has published this series in English through volume 26, and you can buy them online on their half-Chinese half-English site. Here's the URL:
http://www.chuangyi.com.sg/new/ecatalogtitle.php?
title=POKEMON%20ADVENTURES.

Ok so anyway, on to the reason I was even blogging right now (and no, it wasn't about the manga). I found a cool video from ABC News through a link on my homepage. It's a news report showing that the New York Philharmonic were going to perform in North Korea, a rather unusual feat in a very isolated country whose internet restrictions are worse than China's (at least in China you can use the internet, though it's monitored; in North Korea it's illegal to use the internet at all, although this is beginning to change, they say in the report).

Here's the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4342844&affil=kgtv

Enjoy. I'm tired and I have school tomorrow. Good night.

5th death in the family

I'm just writing this really quick cause I'm going to go to bed soon.

My Uncle Bobbo wasn't doing well health-wise, which is why he and Aunt Jane didn't come for Christmas. In the last few days, his condition has gotten worse. He had gone in for some surgery, something went wrong somewhere, he had a stroke. I don't quite know the details.

But the point is, he's dead. He died tonight. Mum told me just a little while ago.

Why?! Why, God? Why is this happening to me and to my family? This is 5 deaths in less than 10 years, and our second death in less than a year (after Grandad, who died last August).

Why does God allow death and tragedy? To shake us up because in some cruel, sadistic way he feels the need to?

I got cranky today at work because of some stupid misunderstanding about lunch scheduling, and then tonight this comes, like a slap in the face. What point is there in me worrying about stupid things and getting upset because of them when at the same time, hundreds of miles away, in Las Vegas, a 50-something man was fighting for his life?

Now neither of my parents have parents, I and Andrew don't have grandparents, my dad doesn't have a brother-in-law, and my aunt's a widow. Who's next? Aunt Jane's not that young either. She's 10 1/2 years older than Papa.

I don't know how I'm gonna work tomorrow. I could barely concentrate tonight while trying to pick out songs for my next Dark Mercury Arc Fandub Project installment (which I did to allow my PGSM torrents to seed for a few hours).

Oh well I'm gonna start getting ready for bed. Good night.

Printmaking blues, Sailor V manga arrives!, finished Oracle Quest

[BEGUN AT 2:40] Just left Printmaking class. I am getting fed up with my pictures not coming out right. At the same time, I don't want to drop the class, since I can't add any classes right now I don't think, except for open entry/exit classes like the BOT or CIS ones, until the 8-week classes start.

The teacher came up to me at my supplies locker unexpectedly and we talked. He seemed ok with my slow progress and said I just might need more time to pick the right image. (It's a good thing I didn't tell him that in the progress of cutting one of my blocks today I chipped one of the tool ends!)

So I am going to try to find possibly just some image from online instead of trying to draw something. That seems to be what most of the class did. I also may do a background plate in addition to the main plate (or "key plate" as it's called). I may have to have more linoleum cut though, since two of my plates aren't really re-usable (one with my Jalin Chinese New Year picture and one with the pieces from the CYA's Armor of God on it, on which the main drawings turned out good -when I showed the teacher my plates while we were talking, he liked the boots I'd drawn to represent the Shoes of Readiness - but not the writing) and the other two have pencil drawing on them from when I was trying to make more copies of the Jalin picture. I may be able to just erase the pencil though, though doing this somewhat messes up the linoleum. I think I need a stronger eraser. (The ones on my pencils are pretty weak). Besides, I need to save some linoleum for our second blockprint later in the semester.

I just hope that at the end of the semester I end up with enough good pieces for the final! I need 5. I mean, I'm planning on taking the class credit/no credit anyways - in fact, I am going to go figure out how to apply for that before I leave school today since the deadline for doing that is this Friday - but still, I have to have something to submit. Fortunately, we're supposed to be doing more than just blockprints this semester, hopefully, so maybe I'll do better with woodcuts or etchings.

In other news...I mentioned on the 10th that I ordered the Sailor V manga from Amazon Canada. For some strange reason, they were unable to deliver the package to my house. They left a little slip telling me where I could pick it up and such. Today was the first chance I had to pick it up. I left an hour earlier than I usually leave for school and took the bus to the post office listed on the card (having looked up bus directions last night), which was like a 15 minute bus ride away. Then I went to where you pick up stuff like that and got the package. I opened the box once I was on the bus again, and there they were: all 3 volumes of the Sailor V manga, in French. The manga are in nice trade paperback graphic novels, about the size of a normal graphic novel. I was surprised by the size, seeing as each one was like $13 apiece. They did have those cool faux flaps though that they use to make paperback books look like they have a dust jacket when they really don't.

I haven't read them yet though I glanced at stuff on them, like the flaps and some stuff in the back about a Sailor Moon club that I could more or less understand without translation (guess a semester using a French Canadian planner aimed at preteen girls paid off).

I did notice a typo on the flap text though. Volume 1's flap refers to Minako as a lycéenne, but Volume 2's flap refers to her as a collégienne. Aside from the accent error on Volume 2's label - the accented e should have an accent grave (è), not an accent aigu (é) - the labels themselves aren't consistent. The word lycée can be translated to mean simply "secondary school" but usually is translated as "high school." Therefore a lycéenne would be a female high school student. Collège is also considered "secondary school" but is more the equivalent of junior high (which is why the school in Code Lyoko is called "Kadic Collège"). A female student there would be a collègienne.

I just checked a translation of the first volume and it says she is in 7th grade. So the lycéenne one is technically wrong, although the translation I checked translates it as "schoolgirl," which deals with the discrepancy.

Oh well that's just me being nerdy like that.

Anyway the books are printed with flipped pictures, in other words in the way any book of the West is usually printed. Probably just as well.

Okay it's nearly 4. I didn't mean to stay so late. Anyway, really quick about Oracle Quest: I finished it today. Unfortunately, thanks to the interview on PotterCast and some poking around at the series website, I spoiled myself on some details for the next few books. Like that *SPOILER (highlight to see)* Katie ends up marrying the guy she meets at the end of Oracle Quest, who is in fact the World Dimension counterpart of the Prince of the Land.*SPOILER END*

The book was very good, and I'm looking forward to reading the others.

Okay I'm gonna go. I was just going to blog quickly and then work on my new websites for a bit, but I think I will do the website work at home. Not to mention finding an image for next class.

Bye.

I BEAT TEEN TITANS!!, wet DVD, Quest series

Earlier tonight, I was playing my GameCube version of the Teen Titans videogame. And just a few minutes ago...I BEAT IT!!! Yay! Granted, it is not that hard once you get the hang of it. I played it right after I got it (a LONG time ago) then got stuck on some part and abandoned the game for awhile. Recently, I picked it up again after getting tired of playing Soul Calibur II and Super Smash Bros. Melee. I was going to play The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age instead, but unfortunately, I was forced to format the memory card that might have had the data for that game on it (I wasn't able to check). And for anybody that has played that game, you know you really don't want to have to start back at the beginning when you've got as far as Helm's Deep.

Anyway, the only drag is that the ending is, while funny, also anticlimactic. *SPOILER WARNING* Basically, in the game's final area, you get forced into a "tournament" by the Master of Games. The first tournament involves deflecting a ball using a box and trying to get the ball past your opponent. It appears (from the purple aura around the box) that you automatically use Raven for this.

The second tournament involves using Starfire to fire bolts at moving targets from a distance. You have barrels as barriers to keep you safe, but you usually end up obliterating these anyway in the process of taking down all the targets.

The last tournament is the final showdown: a rather long and nasty fight with Slade, voiced by Ron Perlman (Slade's VA in the Teen Titans show) in all his wonderful nasty Slade-ness. Slade will periodically retreat and send lackeys after you instead, particularly minions with energy shields that only energy attacks, like those of Raven, Starfire, or Cyborg, can really crack. I played Raven pretty much the whole time - she seems to be the best for getting in close to Slade and releasing an attack that actually does reasonable damage to him. The only problem is when he starts firing fire beams at you, courtesy of the new powers he got from Trigon (a reference to season 4 of the show).

Finally, after defeating Slade with the usual team attack that finishes off bosses, the team confronts the Master of Games, telling him to let them out of the game they appear to be trapped in. But the Master of Games is himself trapped by the game. So...WHO IS CONTROLLING EVERYTHING??

The answer: You are.

You may be thinking either "What?!" or "Duh." "Duh" in the sense that, since you are playing the game, of course you're controlling the Titans. But you might be thinking "What?!" because how strange of an ending that is.

Literally, after seeing that the Master of Games isn't the top villain, the Titans realize you, the player, are the real person behind everything, and they proceed to address you directly, in a "let's break the fourth wall" style. Then they name their favorite boss fights. (Cyborg = Gizmo; Starfire = The Bunny; Raven = Mumbo Jumbo; Beast Boy = Ternion; Robin = Slade).

The real funny part is when a confused Robin says, "So are we free?" and Beast Boy says they are cause the game's over, and big white letters appear above them saying "GAME OVER."

If you sit through the credits, a scene shows afterwards where Cyborg and Beast Boy have gone back to playing the game normally in Titan Tower. Raven is trying to meditate, but the boys' button-mashing is disrupting her concentration. She then says "I still feel like we're being watched." Then Beast Boy holds his controller up to the screen and addresses the player, saying "Wanna play again?" Then the screen fades to black and returns to the title screen. *END SPOILER WARNING*

Earlier, I accidentially knocked a cup over which apparently still had some liquid in it. This liquid got under the plastic on the front of a DVD Heather lent me (which had fallen onto the floor by my desk) and made the cover all wet. There's nothing I can do except let it dry and hope the liquid didn't affect the DVD. The worst part though is that the DVD isn't even mine, and if the DVD is damaged on top of this Heather will probably kill me. Oy.

A couple weeks ago, PotterCast had a guest host on named Lisa Wright-DeGroodt, who aside from being a friend of theirs is also a writer of a self-published fantasy series called the "Quest Series." Apparently this series is about parallel dimensions and how the goal with these dimensions is to maintain a balance between good and evil, with more favor toward the side of good. Anyway, I ordered the first book online (only way to get it) and I am almost done with it. At first, I didn't seem all that into it, and I thought, "Oh no! It's boring me!". But when I first started reading it, I was pretty tired and out of it. So that might be the reasoning for that.

Anyway the first book, Oracle Quest, is pretty good, and is actually a lot like the fantasy novel I'm working on writing --The Elven Princess -- in that it involves a person from our world ending up in another world and finding out she has powers there.

Okay I think I am going to stop here, because I got up really early this morning and I'm starting to feel tired. Good night.

Bored, bored, so bored; Un-Valentine's Day party, new shows of interest, Tech Links is gone (and so are my eps...AND MY FANFIC...grr), etc.

I am very restless and bored right now. Practically all of the last week I have spent my time after work sitting in front of the computer. I spent some of it productively creating a Elyon video I've meant to do for awhile. But most of it was just bored web surfing and stuff.

Tonight, I had plans to do my FAFSA, but upon looking at my "FAFSA Worksheet" (a worksheet you can print out and fill out ahead of time with the info you need for the FAFSA), Mum figured out that it would best to do my taxes before my FAFSA. So we're going to work on that this weekend, and I'll be able to do my FAFSA hopefully by Monday.

Speaking of next week, I need to find some time to go down to the post office, where some package awaits me that they for some reason couldn't deliver to my house, cause they need my signature. My guess is that it's my Sailor V tankoubons from Amazon Canada. My only issue is I don't know which post office to go to. I'll have to ask Mum.

Last night was the "Un-Valentine's Day Party" the aspie group put on. I was looking forward to it all week. We ate candy - M & M's and trail mix - and popcorn and watched The Astronaut Farmer (definitely not a romantic movie, which was the point). We ended up with that movie by process of elimination, after we couldn't decide what movie to watch and ended up sitting around talking about TV and then Mythbusters and then religion. This one guy named Zane was doing most of the talking; he's kind of obnoxious and has no clue how loud he is. He particularly shocked most of us with a story about a couple of his friends prank-calling McDonald's and using a really awful racial slur in regards to a Mexican guy. Somehow he found some humor in that, though he claimed that he felt bad for allowing his friends to do it.

This one guy Lowell from the group mentioned an interesting thing: Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe, as opposed to Sephardic Jews, who settled in the Iberian Peninsula) have a particularly high incidence of Asperger's. Papa found this interesting too when I told him. You see, I am of Ashkenazi Jewish descent on my dad's side (my great-grandfather came from a Polish Jew family). So while I am not a Jew religiously, I am one ethnically, sort of (I'm really only 1/8 Jewish, since my great-grandmother was from Latvia).

When looking for TV show eps for my iPod, I decided to try out a couple new shows. One is a Nickelodeon show called iCarly. It's about a girl named Carly (duh) who starts her own web show with her friends Sam and Freddie. The other show is the TBS show 10 Items or Less. I figured I would find that show funny because it's about people who work at a grocery store, and I currently work at a grocery store. Granted, the show is about a guy who inherits his family's little grocery store in Ohio, and I work for a grocery store chain that has over 100 stores all over Southern California. But still.

Anyway both of them were pretty funny. In iCarly, I noticed they used terms for programs and such like "PhotoDock" and "SplashFace." "PhotoDock" is an obvious play on PhotoShop, and SplashFace looks similar to YouTube, except that it has message boards whereas YouTube does not. In 10 Items or Less, Leslie's "Book for Success" binder he hands out is full of motivational sort of stuff that reminds me of the training videos they make us watch for my work (particularly one called "The Extra Degree" or something like that that was all that kind of stuff).

I just went to Tech Links to see if I could somehow copy and paste a fanfic I posted on there, assuming it was still there (their server crashed recently, so I didn't know if it would be up still), so I could put it on Land of Walden. But they're closed!! Since CL ended, they closed down the forum. This is bad, since I assumed the fic would be there and thus threw away my handwritten copy while cleaning. I am really bummed cause it was a really good fic. Not to mention I had another good fic on there which I have no backup of, handwritten or otherwise.

Oh well. That's not too bad, I guess. It'll just go the way of my lost Tenchi Muyo fanfics.

The bad part too now is that my only source of getting English Code Lyoko episodes is gone. And I promised Hannah/Jewels I'd send her some episodes she wanted for videos. But now I can't, cause I have rebooted my computer since then, and I didn't save the CL eps cause I figured I could re-download them. I know where I can get them in French, though that doesn't help too much.

I'll have to break the news to Hannah.

LATER

Ok I did that.

I was just thinking about how pretty much anytime I do any song-dubbing and post the video on YouTube, I get nasty comments about my singing. Granted, some people will say stuff like, "it was good, but you weren't on key," and I'll be like, "Ok, thanks" cause that's constructive criticism. But comments like the one I got yesterday on my "If the U.S. Dubbers Dubbed PGSM Part 1" are just flat-out mean.

Here's where the comment came from. Someone had posted a comment saying:

I'd like to see DiC dub PGSM. It'd be funny.

To which I responded:

Yeah, it would. And probably a disaster.

Yesterday somebody responded to my comment by saying:

Like your singing?

That stung. It really did. Now, I know that sounds silly to put it that way. But it's true! Granted, I am not a super good singer. I admit this. There are people who are WAY better singers than me, like my friend Maryanne for instance. I have had people in the past tell me I had a nice voice, but I always brushed it off modestly. I recall one instance where somebody told me my voice was nice but I needed training. Which is true.

But I tried. And plus I had already communicated in other comments that I did it intending for it to sound cheesy and over-the-top. See the video in question to see what I mean.

I mentioned this to Heather today and she agreed that the comment was mean. She said that people should be admired for working up the courage to do stuff like what I did. That made me feel somewhat better.

Oh and btw after seeing the comment I used the power I have over comments on my own videos that I don't like: I deleted it. I know, immature move perhaps. But it's good that that feature is there, in case people get obscene or whatever. Or just really really mean. And trust me they can indeed get that way.

I guess not everyone will like you. I know I got some really bad comments to one of my Veoh videos too (comments worse than the ones about how people dislike my "Imago Dei" intro -- comments I never got on YouTube, where making up your own studio for your videos and making an intro for it is totally acceptable and very commonplace). Fortunately Hannah (who's also on Veoh) stepped in and started defending me.

It's now close to 10 and I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to go take a shower.

Oh one more thing. I got a bargain book at Barnes and Noble about drawing manga, even though I have a similar book already that I bought right after my first printmaking class. This book though is much more detailed -- it teaches you a lot more stuff. And it was half the price of the other book.

With that book I bought the final volume of the Tokyo Mew Mew manga, so that completes the set of that manga for me. I also bought volume 6 of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days recently, which completes that set.

So far of the series I've been getting volumes of recently, I have completed: Tokyo Mew Mew, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days and Peach Girl: Sae's Story. I have more than half of Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow now, having found volume 4 randomly at Borders Express.

I still need volumes for Pichi Pichi Pitch Mermaid Melody, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and The Good Witch of the West. With both Pichi Pichi Pitch and The Good Witch of the West, I have the same problem: I need volume 3 for both. With The Good Witch of the West, which is a 4-volume series, I really need it. I have seen volume 4 a few times at Borders Express, but not #3. For Pichi Pichi Pitch, I keep seeing every volume except the one I need, which is frustrating.

Tsubasa hasn't been hard to find; pretty much any bookstore that sells manga has it in stock fairly frequently. I have up to volume 8 now. Apparently, there's at least 22 available right now. Which means some of them will definitely get stored in the cabinet under my bed where my extra manga now resides so as to keep my double-stacked manga shelf on my bookcase neat.

I am not used to collecting such long series. Before Tsubasa, the longest series I had was the 8-volume Chobits series, which I painstakingly collected a volume at a time (except for I think 6 and 7, which I bought together), continually checking the two bookstores I frequent to see if it was in.

The other "long" series I'm collecting is The Prince of Tennis manga, which also has at least 20 graphic novels. Due to it being a sport manga with not a lot of dialogue, I tend to go through the volumes pretty quickly.

There are also a few series I'm stalemated on, where I can't find more volumes in stores no matter how hard I try. The first Cardcaptor Sakura series for one. Also a few series where I only have one volume, like Wedding Peach and Angelic Layer. I need to plan a trip to the Borders in the Forum to look for more manga, since they have tons (I found Angelic Layer there). Actually some time in the last two weeks, when I had shorter shifts, would've been good, cause I'm back to long shifts next week, probably cause Alex is on vacation next week.

Ok I really am tired now, dangit. I'm going, for sure this time.

Good night. And as they say on the Pokemon podcast WTPT, "Stay out of the tall grass."

(If you're a Pokemon fan, you'll get that, but if you aren't, you probably won't).

No "Veer-Zaara," new website plans

I borrowed a Bollywood movie from my coworker Heather called Veer-Zaara. It stars Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta, and also features Rani Mukerji. Unfortunately, my computer won't play it. Wah. At least Disc 1 won't; the second disc (the one with the special features) plays fine. But just watching the 2nd disc would be pointless. Even after buying a thing to clean the laser of my CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive on my laptop, disc 1 still wouldn't play.

Eh well I'll just give her back that one. I just checked the other DVD she lent me (Gandhi, starring Mr. Awesome himself, Sir Ben Kingsley) and it plays fine, so it's not my drive.

I have made plans to do a new website. Well actually a few new websites. I got a free account on 50webs.com and for it I created three subdomains.

Subdomain #1 will be at the URL landofwalden.50webs.com and will be a personal site called Land of Walden. I decided to name it something relating to my Walden stories mainly cause my last two personal sites (Silvanmare and my current one, The Walden Chronicler's Tower) have had Walden-related names. It will cover me, my writing, and my interests (except for a couple major interest groups, which will have separate subdomains devoted to them). Comics will be partially covered here - non-manga comics I like will be covered here, and manga on my anime & manga site (subdomain #3).

Subdomain #2 will be at the URL legendmyth.50webs.com and will be a site called Legend Became Myth, about the fantasy series I like and my interest in mythology. The title comes from a quote by Galadriel in the prologue of the Fellowship of the Ring movie.

The third and final subdomain will be at the URL innerotaku.50webs.com and be an anime & manga site called Release Your Inner Otaku. (I know, goofy name, but I couldn't think of anything else). Plus as an acronym - RYIO - it sort of spells out the name of my favorite Generator Gawl character, Ryo.

Speaking of Generator Gawl, as soon as I can get RYIO up and running, I will dispose of Generator Power!. My reasoning for this is that (1) Generator Gawl is an anime, after all, and so is qualified to get covered on an anime site, (2) There's not enough info out there on Generator Gawl for me to do much more with the site, and (3) Generator Power! just plain doesn't get enough traffic to justify keeping it up. Most of the hits I did get were me checking the site for errors or to see how many hits I had. The last update I have on the site's updates page that references hits says I have over 2,500 hits -- but this entry is for June 21, 2006, and I can't get my counter to show up so I have no idea of the current number, but it can't have changed much. For a site to get so little traffic after nearly 5 years (it started in September 2003) is more than enough reason to take it down.

In other news, I have had light hours at work, allowing me to get a bit more done. Like tonight I need to clean my room. Mainly the mess is in the area between my desk and the door, which is the area I use the most. I guess I could do that after I post this, since I'm not going to watch Gandhi tonight cause it's really late and the movie's 3 hours long, and I can't watch Veer-Zaara. Besides, I need to get my CD's off the floor mainly so I don't step on them.

Besides planning for new websites, I spent most of this afternoon downloading eps of W.I.T.C.H. for my long-planned Elyon video (I'm downloading the last one right now) and browsing through groups on Facebook. I've joined 6 more groups in the last few days. Which is a lot. On the 8th (Friday) I joined fan clubs for Code Lyoko and Totally Spies respectively. Today I joined 4 groups: Do as Infinity Fans, Live Action Sailor Moon, Crystal Tokyo, and Generator Gawl's Anti-Kubre. (It's "Kubere" actually; the group's creator misspelled it). I must have had anime on the brain cause three of those groups are more or less anime-related, while the fourth is related to a j-pop band I really like.

Ok I'm tired. I'm going to go get a trash bag to pick up my trash, get any laundry together (including my apron and work gloves) and get this area clean. I may get some more soda too cause I want to be awake enough to finish.

Oh in other news, I found a way to actually purchase the Sailor V manga in a language other than Japanese! Sadly, this series - which Naoko Takeuchi did before Sailor Moon and which features Minako Aino, who in SM becomes Sailor Venus - isn't available in English (like the SM manga is) but it is available in French, and since I can more or less read French, I should be ok. Anyway, I was able to buy it via a link from Crystal Tokyo, the Sailor Moon group I joined on Facebook. This link led to a site which led to Amazon Canada, which sold the 3-volume manga in French-language graphic novels. The order was $38.85 Canadian before shipping, after about $14 Canadian in shipping (!) it was $ 52.81 Canadian. Ouch. And this is with just Standard International Shipping. I tried to get free shipping, but I couldn't cause my order was automatically "international" cause I live in the U.S. , and international orders don't qualify for free shipping. On the other hand, it's supposed to ship tomorrow. Whether that means they will get here tomorrow or not I don't know. I know my B & N.com order is scheduled to arrive soon too.

Anyway, in the spirit of PotterWatch (and now PotterCast):

Keep twiddling those dials. The next password will be "Walden." Keep each other safe. Keep faith. Good night!

My daemon

On one of the MuggleCast eps I was listening to today, they were talking about The Golden Compass. One of the co-hosts said:

"Did you guys go on The Golden Compass website to find your Daemon?"

Apparently only Matt Britton (the co-host who said this) actually did this. ("Am I the only dork who did it?" he says).

But anyway I was determined to try this out when I got home from work. Basically, you go to goldencompassthemovie.com and click on the "Daemons" button. Then click on the button "Meet Your Daemon." This will take you to a twenty-question quiz, to which the quiz writer encourages you to answer very truthfully. At the end, your daemon will be revealed, and once you give them your e-mail, you can download stuff to share your daemon on Myspace and stuff. Anyway, here's mine:



My daemon's name is Arkadion, an ocelot (a type of wild cat). My daemon shows that I'm "modest, solitary, shy, humble, and flexible." And Arkadion is male of course. (Your daemon is always of the opposite gender - don't ask me why).

The interesting thing about this is that (1) Lord Asriel's daemon is also a big wild cat (a snow leopard) so I guess I am kind of like him. Also, (2) people with cat daemons tend to be more independent (as opposed to those with dog daemons, who tend to be more subservient - which is why servants in Lyra's world often have dog daemons), which is kinda cool.

My "daemon profile" is at: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/?1008105.

Printmaking class

I had my first class for my Printmaking class this afternoon. I am already out of class, even though the class normally goes till 4:15, because the teacher let us out early.

I'm supposing there's lecture time and then the rest of the time is lab time. That is how it usually is in art classes.

I am a little nervous cause although there are no pre-reqs for this class, a number of my classmates have taken other art classes and so they actually know how to draw. This scares me. My art won't look like squat (to borrow the phrase) next to theirs. Just like how my acting looked like nothing in Elementary Acting next to people who'd been through the Actors' Academy.

For next class, we're to bring in an image to put on a linoleum block for blockprints. It doesn't have to be one we drew, although I would like to draw something. I considered printing out my friend Hannah/Jewels's recently finished drawing of my character Nightshade, since we could bring in something someone else drew, but I don't know how well her drawing will look on a blockprint (based on the blockprints we saw in the lab) since it has quite a bit of details. (Go to http://mewmewbridgetfangirl.deviantart.com/art/
The-Finished-NightShade-75621321 to see the picture I mean).

Another thought I had was drawing some of the "power-up" bracelets for the Percival House Heroes. Although I'm not quite sure what I want them to look like. Maybe like the Jewelry Star Bracelet in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (this is Mercury's - the other senshi's ones look similar but with a different color for the center stone, depending on the senshi):



Nah, not what I want. My story is sci-fi, after all.

I think it should look like a normal sort of bracelet. But futuristic somewhat.

Let me go through the characters and try to think what their bracelets might look like.

Vega: Starlight Bracelet. Activates with "Starlight, Power-Up;" deactivates with "Starlight, Power-Down"

Colette: Tekblast Bracelet. Activates with "Technoblast Alpha, Power-Up" and deactivates with "Technoblast Alpha Power Down"

Linus: Tekblast Bracelet. Activates with "Technoblast Beta Powerup" and deactivates with "Technoblast Beta Power Down"

Mira: Kyringlasse (Kee-reen-glahs) Bracelet. (Mercurian for a combined fire-ice element). Activates with "Kyringlasse Power Up" and deactivates with Kyringlasse Power Down.

Coral: Lightning Bracelet. Activates with "Lightning, Power Up" and deactivates with "Lightning Power Down." (In the CYA arc, her bracelet breaks and Schloffel fixes and modifies it. This new bracelet is called the Shockwave Bracelet).

I can't remember all the characters. I'll look up the others.

Anything Lightning Girl is tough because the story keeps evolving in my head. For instance, at one time Avalon was a nightclub singer with a boss who doted on her à la Harold Zidler from Moulin Rouge!. This version is what I gave Hannah and what she now has in the description of the Nightshade picture on DeviantArt. In another version of Avalon's story, the version I planned out to appear in the ezine Anime Angels, has her as a stage manager for a theater. I don't know why I changed this, maybe to avoid the Moulin Rouge comparisons. Not to mention that most nightclubs nowadays don't have live music all the time. But then, since I don't do the clubbing thing, I wouldn't know. Plus European nightclubs are probably different from ours.

It is difficult to write something 100% original. Not if you read a lot for sure. I like the way Philip Pullman puts it in his Acknowledgments at the end of The Amber Spyglass:

I have stolen ideas from every book I have read. My principle in researching for a novel is "Read like a butterfly, write like a bee," and if this story contains any honey, it is entirely because of the quality of the nectar I found in the work of better writers.

In my basic concepts for Lightning Girl, I have subconsciously borrowed from X-Men a good deal for my concept of the Percival House Heroes (or PHH, as I call them for short). My concepts of the Nightshade story borrow perhaps a good deal from the spiritual warfare portrayed in Frank Peretti's books. The "power-up"/"power-down" thing is a bit of an homage to Hot Spot from the animated show Teen Titans, who "powered down" to turn his powers off (the "power up" may have been influenced by the "make-up" thing from Sailor Moon).

The CYA (Christian Youth Alliance) is perhaps my most original group of heroes in terms of skills, etc. Avalon was already a set character, but her role was changed, making her part of the CYA and not the PHH. Also, she does not have mental powers as in original versions of her story (including the one I'm doing for Anime Angels). Actually, none of the CYA members have superhero powers, which is what makes Coral's entrance into the group interesting. They all do have "spiritual gifts" (as in the ones listed in the Bible).

Avalon in the CYA sense is the leader, though (to paraphrase Shakespeare) she had greatness thrust upon her. The original leader, an elderly man whose name just escaped me, was killed while protecting the Prime Minister of England. Avalon, one of the CYA's first members, took his place. Her skill is weapon-making; she also has the spiritual gift of discerning evil spirits. Her experience under the "Nightshade curse" has made her more attune to this sort of thing. (I originally had her be a sort of exorcist also, but now I'm not so sure about this being particular to her - technically by God's power, any Christian can "cast out" demons). Her code name is Ashela, after an ancient heroine of Phi Andromedae, where she grew up.

Ayumi is Avalon's close friend and her second-in-command. She is a former miko (Shinto shrine priestess) and also well-trained in martial arts and in ikebana (flower arranging) and sadō (tea ceremony). I imagine her as being similar to Rei from Sailor Moon. She primarily fights using martial arts, including kyudō (use of the bow) and sōjutsu (use of the spear), but also puts her more traditional arts - flower arranging and tea ceremony - to good use by making "weapons" (if they can be called that) out of them - a vase that shoots out flowers like a gun and a tea ladle that shoots out stuff (tea I assume - haven't worked that out yet). Somehow the idea of a flower arranging vase being used as a gun sounded both fun and absolutely hilarious to me. Anyway, Ayumi has a spiritual gift too, although I haven't decided what it is yet. I've gone through lists of spiritual gifts and not found one suitable to her yet. Her code name is Kannon, the Japanese name for the bodhisattva of compassion (known as Guan Yin in China and Avalokiteśvara in India).

Edit: I did some more checking and decided to make Ayumi's gift service. The website I found defines this gift so: "This gift is a practical gift. Those with the gift of service enjoy doing routine tasks around the church regardless of how they effect others. Those with this gift enjoy menial tasks and do them cheerfully. Service-oriented people would rather take orders than give them."

Then there's Matt. He's the resident genius, the techie guy. He doesn't fight, but instead runs operations from behind the scenes. He's kind of like Q from James Bond or Wade Load from Kim Possible. His skill is computers and building and fixing stuff. His spiritual gift is knowledge (a gift I didn't know of till I took a few spiritual gifts tests and always got high scores for "knowledge" as a gift). I have also imagined him as possessing a item that allows him to take away a teammate's power if he or she is getting out of hand with it, though I don't know if I'll continue with that idea. His code name is Schloffel, after the creator of the United Federation of Galaxies's information database.

Maria is also a bit of a support character. Her skill is making and fixing robots and playing a recorder called a txistu. She is half Spanish, half Basque. Unlike Matt, she can fight if needed, distracting people with the txistu or fighting with a makila (a Basque walking stick) much like martial arts practitioners fight with a bō staff. She speaks Spanish, English, and Spanish Basque. The android Quinta-575040 (the number being her model number), also known as Quinta, is her assistant. (I picked Quinta's name cause it sounded Spanish; in fact, it is a Spanish word that means "fifth" and also "country house/estate" -- neither of which have to do with Quinta).

Oh shoot it's getting late. I better get home. More later.

I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED!!, A tale of souls and swords, Asperger group; "iPod club" and Facebook, de-allergenizing the house, school coming up, promotion

Ok first my big news of this week. I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO CAL STATE SAN MARCOS!! Yes!!!!!! I just found out on Wednesday morning, when I finally got a hold of the Admissions and Records office to find out why I hadn't heard yet about whether I'd been accepted. The lady was able to go into my account and confirm my admission. Hooray!!

Now I have to fill out the FAFSA, figure out how to pay for college, and begin the steps toward enrollment (indicate my "intent to enroll," send final transcripts, etc). Mum was saying I should try to get the week before school starts off for vacation so I can get stuff in place that needs to be. I need to find out when that is soon because the deadline for requesting vacation for the year is at the end of February (I think; I could've sworn the flyer said "February 30th" was the deadline; the trouble is, February 30th is a non-existent day, as February only has 28 days, or at least 29 this year cause it's a leap year, so if it does say that it must be a typo).

The "tale of souls and swords" refers to Soul Calibur II, which I recently bought for my GameCube. It's hard in some spots but overall pretty fun. The arcade version is basically like your typical Street Fighter-esque kind of stuff; the "RPG-ish" mode (called Weapon Master Mode) has the same kind of fighting as the arcade modes but ties the fights to a storyline). I initially played as Greek warrior Cassandra, and later I unlocked her older sis Sophitia. Sophitia stinks though sometimes, mainly because her shield isn't as big as her sister Cassie's is, which means her defense can be pretty bad on occasion. (Coincidentially, if you play Arcade Mode as Sophitia, your "destined battle" is with Cassandra; if you play as Cassandra your "destined battle" is with Charade, who Sophitia fights in Stage 3 of Arcade Mode). I have also played as Talim a lot, including through most of Weapon Master Mode, except for a couple trouble spots in the "Extra Missions" you do after beating Weapon Master Mode the first time, where I switched characters to try to find someone who worked. The first of these was one where you had to beat the enemy with a Ring Out (knocking your opponent out of the ring). Problem: You can't hold your footing at the edge of the ring (where you need to get to to do a Ring Out) and your opponent is Berserker, a huge ugly giant with a really big axe that can take you out before you can even get close. I finally won with Nightmare, a guy with long blonde hair, dark, scary armor, and a really big, fat sword. Another such problem area was one where no matter what character you were, the conditions of the stage turned you into the reptilian character Lizardman, who has (I later discovered) a really good kick, but a really weak sword.

The third such problem area I am trying to beat right now. It has you take on two opponents one right after the other, and both have their health and speed increased a lot. This is a problem already, because you end up having to use powerful moves constantly to cause any major damage. The other issue is the opponents. The second opponent is always Mitsurugi, but the first opponent is always yourself, that "self" being different each time, depending on what character you are playing as. So your opponent has the same moves as you, only with the benefit of more health and speed. I tried several characters -- my regular Talim, the spear-wielding Seung Mina, the double-sword-wielding pirate Cervantes, Nightmare (who won the last big trouble battle, as aforesaid), and maybe more too. But I always got creamed one way or another. The Talim vs. Talim matchup is bad because Talim is speedy normally, so the opponent Talim is really speedy. The only hope there really is to force a Ring Out. Probably something similar with Mitsurugi.

Anyway, I joined a group recently for young people in my area with Asperger's Syndrome. My mom found out about them from a friend of hers who is a therapist (my dad had also read about it in the paper). I went to my first meetup a couple weeks ago, at Boomers (a place with go-karts, an arcade, mini golf, etc). It was ok but awkward cause it was my first time. I ended up being the last to go home; during my alone time I played both of the two DDR machines in the arcade, even though I'm a beginner. The DDR Extreme machine had "Butterfly" on it though (a DDR song I'm very familiar with). That was cool. Anyway, the next thing of theirs I'm going to is a "Un-Valentine's Day Party" on Valentine's Day, where we eat food not associated with Valentine's and watch a non-romantic movie. I really like the concept, and I am likely to get that day off since it's a school day for me. Unfortunately, work will prevent me attending the meetup before that, at the Wild Animal Park, but at least I'll see people at the party.

As the title of this post suggests, I finally joined the "iPod club" (as I call it). In other words, I bought an iPod. I had been using a little mp3 player my mom wasn't using anymore (because she bought a new iPod) because my ZVUE player was driving me nuts. But I was having trouble with it. So one day I decided to get a new player. It was my day off, and I had been planning to go get new work shoes then, since it was Friday (payday; I have direct deposit so I have money on payday whether I work that day or not). It turned out I had had 2 checks deposited instead of one. I didn't think much of this, but thought the extra money was useful. So I went to get the shoes, found decent ones for $25 at Payless, and then went across the street to Wal-Mart. They were out of the one I wanted -- the 4GB Nano. So I went across the street to Target Greatland and there I found a 4GB Nano, which I paid $162.62 for with tax.

I was going to tell Mum about the iPod when I got home, but then she got worried that the 2-check deposit was a mistake. So obviously I wasn't going to tell her then that I'd just bought an expensive music player. But I took Mum's suspicions seriously and called my work. It turned out that the 2-check deposit was not a mistake after all; I got two checks because I had celebrated my 1-year anniversary at Stater Bros. that week, so I got an extra "anniversary check." I told Mum this and she was relieved. Then I told her about the iPod, and this went over a lot better with that timing.

Anyway, I am loving my iPod; it plays great for both music and video (mine's a 3rd-generation Nano, so it can play video). I actually freaked out the other day (Tuesday) cause it was acting up and not playing anything. (Not to mention my DS broke the same day - well actually the bottom screen works, but the top screen developed a dark dot under the screen and won't display things right -- and when this happened to my original GBA they told me it was more worth it to replace it than to get it fixed). Fortunately, I plugged it into my computer, restored it to its original settings via iTunes, and it went back to normal.

I don't have much in terms of iPod accessories (or as they're often called, "peripherals"). I bought a hard case at a store at the mall called The Icing (which is owned by Claire's; it sells accessories like bracelets, earrings, etc) that has the Eiffel Tower on it in black and white. And at the Target by my work I bought a "PowerBlock" peripheral that allows me to charge my iPod using a wall socket. But that's all.

I also joined Facebook. Not much to say there. I managed to find a bunch of my high school graduating class classmates, and added my old friends Rachelle and Carolann to my Facebook friend list. I added a couple "apps" to my profile -- Shelfari (which lets you display books you like as the covers on shelves) and Harry Potter -- Compete for the House Cup (I got sorted & I'm in Ravenclaw; some of the quiz answers were obviously Ravenclaw and I was going to originally just answer all those because I think I'm a Ravenclaw anyway, but that wouldn't reflect me as a person so I answered what I wanted to, including at least one answer that was for sure Gryffindor). I joined some groups. It turns out that "networks" are connected to regions, jobs, colleges, and high schools only; but "groups" can be about anything. So when I mentioned in the last post about having networks relating to other things, I just didn't know that that was what groups were for.

Anyway, I joined these groups: TRUE LOVE WAITS, Admirers of C.S. Lewis, Pottercast, My Name is Lily Potter. You Thought I Was Dead. You Were Wrong., and The Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks Memorial. (The Lily Potter one is actually dedicated to J.K. Rowling and in particular to a recent interview she did with PotterCast, where she joked about seeing fanfiction that featured characters that in the canon series are dead; as an example she mentioned one that started out like this: "My Name is Lily Potter. You Thought I Was Dead. You Were Wrong").

Short bits now on the last three subjects, since it's late and I'm tired:

~ De-allergenizing the house: We recently had some guy come through and purify the air in the house, making it better for people with allergies (like Papa and myself). The result? A bit of a smell afterwards, and I had to strip my bed before the guy came and afterwards wash all my sheets and blankets.

~ School Coming Up: My class for this semester starts next Tuesday, February 5, a.k.a. Super Tuesday. As the class doesn't start till 1pm, I'm planning to go vote before school since our polling place is within walking distance (a little more than a mile away, at a Unitarian church). I'm looking forward to the class.

~ Promotion: I am sort of getting a promotion - possibly becoming the demo person for service deli & bakery. Basically I will sample stuff. I did today. It was ok but a little boring after a while. The last hour in particular was killer.

Ok I'm signing off now cause I'm tired.